time the rock (R) in the foregoing draught bore S. S. E. five miles
diftant, and the grand Ladrone W. by S, about two leagues diftant.
The rock (R) is a moil: excellent direction for (hips coming from
the eaftward : Its latitude is. 2 10 : 52' North, and it bears from
Pedro Blanco S. 64° W, diftant twenty-one leagues. You are to
leave it on the ftarboard-fide, and you may come within half a mile
o f it in eighteen fathom water: And then you muft fteer N. by
W . 4 W. for the channel, between the Iilands of Cabouce and
Bamboo, which are to the northward of the grand Ladrone.
After having continued at anchor all night, we, on the gth, at
four in the morning, fent our Cutter to found the channel, where
we propofed to pafs ; but before the return o f the Cutter, a Cbinefe
Pilot put on board the Centurion, and told usJn broken Portuguefe,
he would carry the fhip to Macao for thirty dollars : Thefe were
immediately paid him, and we then weighed and made fail. Soon
after feveral other Pilots came on board, who, to recommend them-
felves, produced certificates from the Captains of many European
fhips they had piloted in, but we ftill cofitinued under the management
o f the Chinefe whom we at firft engaged. By this time we
learnt, that we were not far diftant from Macao, and that there
were in the river of Canton, at the mouth of which Macaodies,
eleven European fhips, of which four were Englijh. Our Pilot
carried us between the Iilands of Bamboo and Cabouce, but the
winds hanging in the northern board, and the tides often fetting
ftrongly againft us, we were obliged to come frequently to an
anchor, fo that we did not get through between the two Iilands
till the -1 ?th o f November, at two in the morning. In palling
through, our depth of water was from twelve to fourteen fathom;
and as we ftill fleered on N. by W. 4 W , between a number of
other Iilands, our foundings underwent little or no variation till
towards the evening, when they increafed to feventeen fathom ; in
which depth (the wind dying away) we anchored not far from
the Illand of Lantoon, the largeft of all this range of Iilands. At
feven in the morning we weighed again, and fleering W. S. W.
and